Last Saturday I went to see a couple of short documentaries on Cambodia at the Greenwood Public Library.
Incidentally I ran out of gas for the second time in my life on the way. I was at the photo lab beforehand and decided I could make it back and fill up later since I was running late (for those that know me, this is no surprise). Well I did make it back to the house with my car sputtering and unable to start again. Not as cool as my dad running out of gas at the gas station and coasting to the pump but at least I made it home.
Even though I skipped getting gas I arrived about ten or fifteen minutes late. So I missed the first half of Searching For The Truth: My True Story but what I did catch was interesting. The filmmaker Dara Duong was in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge came into power. In fact he lost his father to the violence. The film was Dara in Cambodia interviewing ex-Khmer Rouge officials. Surprisingly even though they were old men now they showed no signs of remorse and admitted no responsibility for what they had done. Even though those events took place over thirty years ago no trails have been held to date. Dara has opened The Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial here in Seattle. I plan on visiting it soon and will review it here when I do. I also heard he originally started the museum in his car then moved it to his garage before he obtained a space, pretty cool.
The second film Visions from Cambodia was less enjoyable for me. It was following the journey of the filmmakers on a voluntourism trip to build houses in Cambodia. It did have some useful information about Tabitha the organization running the house building among other things. However the impression I received from the film was “Hey look at what we’re doing, aren’t we great?”. I thought more time could have been spent on the people the houses were being built for as opposed to the construction by foreigners. However I liked it nonetheless and the previous statements are just my opinions and you know what they say about those.
I went to see these films because years ago I had a girlfriend that was half khmer (Cambodian). I used to hang out with Cambodians quite a bit at that time and found them to be a fascinating people. We never talked much about what happened in Cambodia, so seeing the films was a good way to increase my knowledge of the situation. Oddly enough I have never seen The Killing Fields movie. Back at that time it was a little too close to home. Obviously I didn’t go through any of it but I didn’t want to know what those I cared about went through. Much time has passed now so I do want to see it but it will have to wait until I get a place and my TV and DVD player out of storage.
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